December 14, 2009, Monday

THE most influential political philosopher of his generation died last week. But Prof. John Rawls of Harvard, who was 82, was decidedly not a man of the current era. At least not in the United States. In Britain and Canada, where the nature of...

December 1, 2002, Sunday

After a four-year absence, the federal budget deficit has returned -- and so has the politically contorted debate over it. The deficit is $159 billion for the year that ended Sept. 30. Democratic leaders warn that the current deficit is a danger...

November 3, 2002, Sunday

''Happy to receive you, World Bank,'' sang dozens of mostly shoeless youngsters as a group of journalists and bank representatives approached a rural Ugandan school earlier this month on a trip sponsored by the World Bank. There's something jarring...

May 26, 2002, Sunday

On some propositions, economists are nearly unanimous: Trade promotes economic growth. Growth reduces poverty. The agreement reached last week among the more than 140 trade ministers gathered in Doha, Qatar, is good for rich countries, perhaps even...

November 20, 2001, Tuesday

A MODEST proposal: give every American an M.R.I. as part of a yearly checkup. The scans will surely catch disease at an early stage for a few, and they won't harm anyone. True, they may cost a few thousand dollars per person, but in America cost is...

July 29, 2001, Sunday

HOVERING above last week's Senate debate over the so-called patients' bill of rights was an unspoken question: was all the speechmaking really just a smokescreen that obscures the truly tough health care problems facing the country? Democrats said...

June 24, 2001, Sunday

ELECTRICITY deregulation -- allowing power companies to set wholesale prices on their own -- has gone seriously awry in California. Severe shortages have led to rolling blackouts and soaring prices, with wholesale prices rising about 700 percent in a...

June 3, 2001, Sunday

REMEMBER all those protesters dressed up as sea turtles and carrying pictures of dolphins as they railed against the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999? Well, the W.T.O.-bashers are back, this time in Quebec, where President George W. Bush...

April 22, 2001, Sunday

Moses Abramovitz , a former president of the American Economic Association and a leading authority on the causes of growth and business cycles, died Dec. 1 at Stanford University Hospital. He was 88. The cause was complications after he was...